Biology

Unown is a flat, thin Pokémon shaped like an eye with appendages that make it resemble a letter or a punctuation mark. It is entirely black, except for its white sclera. All twenty-six alphabetic forms of Unown have fully open eyes while the two punctuation Unown have half-closed eyes. Though each of its forms has a counterpart in the Latin alphabet, Unown is said to resemble ancient writing and hieroglyphs. It is a mystery whether Unown predates or postdates written language, and therefore which one is based on the other.

The Pokédex and Professor Oak's research disagree on whether Unown communicates using electromagnetic waves or telepathy. Either way, it can be detected by the Pokégear radio, which interprets it as the melody of the Azure Flute. It is said that an "odd power" emerges when more than one Unown come together. In the anime, it is capable of reading the thoughts of other life forms. Great numbers of Unown are capable of distorting the reality to suit the dreams and wishes of whoever is in control of the Unown. However, they can only do this when more Unown are present, so it could be a shared effort rather than an ability unique to each Unown.

Unown is an extremely rare Pokémon that lives in its own dimension and rarely ventures outside. When it moves to the Pokémon world, Unown tends to stick to walls like engravings of ancient texts or orbit other Unown.

In the anime

Major appearances

Unown play a large role in the third movie, creating the illusions which drive the plot.

Notes about Unown can be seen on Professor Oak's computer at the beginning of the movie. The information (as presented in the Japanese version) has been cleaned up and transcribed here:

Because of their very timid and careful character, Unown do not want to go out to the external world.

Unown have the power to perceive the feelings of other creatures (including human beings).

Unown communicate with each other over electromagnetic waves but cannot use telepathy.

Given all this, Unown are still classified as a species of Pokémon, as opposed to any other sort of creature.

Other

An Unown fell out of the Unown dimension in Address Unown!. After it was healed by the group, it helped defend against Team Rocket and its mind merged with that of Ash's Larvitar so that the group could help it to address its inner pain.

In the manga

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

Unown first appeared in Into the Unown at the Ruins of Alph. During a battle with Team Rocket, Gold has his Sunbo use Flash, accidentally awakening the Unown from their slumber. Angered, the Unown retaliated on the Team Rocket Elite Trio, defeating them. Bugsy later returns to study the Ruins further in Hurray for Heracross, where he captures an Unown G and gave to one of his colleagues. Later as he searches for Suicune he finds two chambers with Unown markings, using his device to translate them they read the following.

Unown

Romaji

ANANUKE

HOUOU

Three Unown appeared in a flashback in Raising Raichu, being the N, G and U forms.

In the TCG

Other appearances

When one Unown is released from a Poké Ball, it will fly off the screen. It then returns with a large swarm, similar to what Beedrill did in the original Super Smash Bros. The only difference is that Beedrill only attack from left or right while Unown can come from any direction. Any opponent caught in this barrage is damaged and juggled.

There are also a number of Unown Poké Floats featured in the Poké Floats stage. In the second half of the stage's cycle, numerous Unown fly across the screen. Towards the end of the cycle, staying on the stage relies on hopping between the Unown.

Trophy Information

These Psychic-type symbol Pokémon resemble ancient hieroglyphics found on rocks, a resemblance that's said to be more than superficial. Quite a few different shapes of Unown have been confirmed, and it's believed that each type has unique abilities. These enigmatic Pokémon can be found in the Ruins of Alph.

Trivia

In Spell of the Unown, Professor Oak had some pictures of Unown on his computer which have never appeared in any other media. Some resemble Greek alphabet letters, particularly σ (lowercase sigma), Σ (capital sigma), Π (pi), and Ω (omega). The top left large image also resembles the Greek Ȣ (ou). Others resemble the Cyrillic letters ю (yu) and б (be). The Unown in the top-middle large image resembles the Cyrillic я (ya).

If a player does not have Unown's Pokédex data on a Generation II game when in Oak's lab in Pokémon Stadium 2, Unown's Pokédex number is listed as 252 instead of 201. This happens regardless of which Pokédex display mode is selected.

Origin

Their appearances are corruptions of the modern Latin alphabet, as well as the exclamation mark (!) and the question mark (?), and the G form of Unown is based on a double-story lower case G. The shapes of the Unown are used like graphic symbols in the Pokémon world, although in Hoenn and the Sevii Islands, their place is taken by Braille.

Name origin

Unown is a corruption of unknown.

Unknown is literally unknown.

In other languages

Language

Title

Meaning

Japanese

アンノーン Unknown

From unknown

French

Zarbi

From the word bizarre in Verlan, a youth language consisting of reversed words